Ever since my first job in retail, at the age of 16, I’ve been running or developing teams in some way, shape or form. While. in those earlier years, I wasn’t in charge of recruitment or training, those are key parts of making a team that actually works together, and a team that works well. It took me far too long to learn that your team is an extension of your skills, and that delegating, building specialists and getting people in who work differently than you, can make a team greater than the sum of its parts. This article is about the four things that I think are essential to building and developing a great team, things that have taken me years to learn and that I wish I knew earlier.
It’s hard being in charge of a team, but it’s also hard to be part of a team that doesn’t function. There’s as much as an obligation from the people who form, train and run the team to do so well as there is on the team members to work. That degree of give and take, alongside things like clear communications and knowing your teammates’ strengths and weaknesses are what make a great team. When you think of great teams in sports, film, TV or real life, that awareness of each other’s strengths is always what allows the team overall (and as such the team members) to thrive.
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